Polar Bears Knock off Gators in Title Game

Nov 18, 2006

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MEADVILLE, Pa. – One day after committing 19 turnovers and walking away with a victory in the opening round of its own tournament, the Allegheny College women’s basketball team was not so fortunate as it accumulated 20 miscues en route to an 85-58 loss to Ohio Northern University in the championship game of the National City Tip-Off Tournament. The Polar Bears (2-0) converted the Gator turnovers into 29 points in capturing the second-straight victory for the Ohio Athletic Conference at Allegheny’s season-opening tournament.

It wasn’t an entirely disappointing loss for the Gators as senior guard Katie Kestler (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon), pictured at left, became the school’s all-time leader in career three-pointers by canning four shots from deep. Kestler, who now has 123 longballs, surpassed the old record of 120 set by Valery Medwid just last season. The Gator senior also led the team in scoring on the night with 16 tallies on 6-of-12 shooting from the field to go with six rebounds to earn all-tournament honors along with fellow senior Jennifer Latronica (Gibsonia, Pa./Deer Lakes), who capped off her tournament with 12 points, three rebounds, and three blocked shots in the championship game.

After grabbing the lead 7-6 on a Latronica layup five minutes in, the Gators suddenly found themselves down by 13 (23-10) courtesy of a 17-4 run by the visitors. Ohio Northern canned three of its game-high 12 three pointers in the stretch.

Kestler helped chip the second-half deficit away with a pair of three-point shots, the second giving her the record and cutting the margin to just 25-18 with six minutes remaining in the half. The Polar Bears countered with an 8-0 to open their largest lead of the period at 15 (33-18) before Allegheny posted six of the final nine tallies to put the score at 36-24 at the break.

That would be the closest the Gators would get the rest of the way as Ohio Northern used a 26-8 run at the start of the second half to open up a 28-point lead (60-32). Most of the damage came from the inside-outside duo of Jenny Markle and Erin Brand, who combined for 19 points in the second period as the Bears shot 18-of-32 from the field, including 6-of-10 from deep.

Kestler finished 4-of-8 from long range, while sophomore Stephanie Wolf (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny), right, posted 11 points, including 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, and nine rebounds. Freshmen Brittany Bell (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield) and Emilie Simone (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) capped successful debuts with five and six points, respectively, with the former dishing out a team-high five assists.

Markle, last season’s national leader in three-point percentage, canned 6-of-13 from deep to account for all of her 18 points. Ohio Northern placed five players in double figures in all as Alisha Rinehart, Megan Cevasco, Danille Andreasen, and Brand finished with 16, 13, 13, and 12, respectively. Both Rinehart and Andreasen were named to the all-tournament team with the latter picking up MVP honors after posting 27 points and 12 rebounds over the two days.

In the consolation game, Bethany College (1-1) put on a dominating display on the glass against LaRoche College (0-2), out-rebounding the Redhawks 53-33 en route to an 82-65 victory. Four players managed double figures for the Bison, led by Lisa Mitchell’s 14. Jennifer Scarborough, who notched 10 points in the game and 19 for the tournament, earned all-tourney honors for Bethany along with Marlis Graves of LaRoche.

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